Pictures from the set of Moonrise Kingdom

NEWPORT, R.I. – Strange things were happening at Trinity Church earlier this morning, as the film crew for the Wes Anderson feature film, “Moonrise Kingdom,” set up for a couple of days of filming scenes inside and outside of the church.

Along with Anderson, other Hollywood stars sighted near the church on Wednesday were Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton and Bob Balaban.

By mid-morning, passersby on Spring Street appeared intrigued by the startling sight of a black, vintage Volkswagen bug squashed like – well, a bug – beneath a steeple that had apparently fallen from the top of historic Trinity Church. Not to worry! The real steeple is intact; the one sitting on the Volkswagen was only a prop.

Also part of the scene-setting were tree branches strewn around as if blown down in a storm, dozens of sand bags propped against the side of the church as if to prevent flooding, and a busful of extras costumed as Boy Scouts.

Federico Santi (the owner of The Drawing Room antiques directly across Spring Street from the church) has a close-up view of all the goings-on at Trinity. “It was startling to look out and see what looked like the steeple knocked off the church this morning,” he said, “but it will be even more startling when we see our historic Trinity blasted by lightning in the movie!”

According to what Santi has heard, there will be filming inside the church again next week as the crew simulates lightning strikes demolishing the steeple. He adds that the filming appears to be going smoothly and on schedule: “According to everyone I’ve talked to who has been working with the production crew, they are very kind and nice to work with. Myself, I had someone come into my shop from the prop department, desperately looking for a set of 1970s high-end mahogany speakers. I didn’t have any, but I sent him down to the shop on Broadway that fixes VCRs in case they had anything like that.”